Everyone played their part

Whilst Rudy Gestede rightly earned the plaudits after his first half hat-trick, Gary Bowyer felt it was a real team performance at St. Andrews.

Rovers blew Birmingham away with a scintillating first half display, Gestede grabbing three headed goals whilst Todd Kane also got on the scoresheet with a deflected strike.

The home side rallied after the break with two strikes themselves but whilst there were some nerves as Birmingham piled forward in the closing stages, Rovers were composed to when it mattered clinch all three points.

"I thought we did ever so well in the first half," said the Rovers boss. "We looked full of energy and the big man was a real handful. Every body contributed massively today.

"I have to say we were extremely disappointed with the two goals and the manner in which we conceded them. We've had to score four to win away."

There was an element of triumph over adversity for Rovers as injury ruled out five players from the squad in the build-up. Tommy Spurr missed out with a groin strain, whilst Michael Keane, Tom Cairney, Lee Williamson and David Dunn all failed late fitness tests.

Despite their absence, the manager was delighted with the display from those who came into the starting eleven.

"We left it as late as we possibly could today and gave them every opportunity, but all of them failed fitness tests," added Bowyer.

"It wasn't great news but the response from the ones that came in was terrific. Todd Kane, Josh King and Markus Olsson went about their business excellent.

"We've always spoke about the competition in the squad and driving each other on and you saw that today.

"The lads that came on also gave us something, Liam Feeney, Luke Varney, Chris Taylor, they all contributed.

"We are all together, we've got a good spirit and they've earned themselves the day off tomorrow."